The Retreat

The Retreat, commonly known as the York Retreat, is a place in England for the treatment of people with mental health needs. Located in Lamel Hill in York, it operates as a not for profit charitable organisation. Opened in 1796, it is famous for having pioneered the so-called "moral treatment" that became a behaviour model for asylums around the world with mental health issues. Founded by William Tuke, it was originally only for Quakers but gradually became open to everyone. It inspired other progressive facilities such as the US Brattleboro Retreat, Hartford Retreat and Friends Hospital. The present day The Retreat seeks to retain the essence of early "moral treatment", while applying the principles to a modern healthcare setting. The Retreat withdrew from the delivery of inpatient services after 222 years on 31 December 2018. History Background The York Retreat developed from the English Quaker community both as a reaction against the harsh, inhumane treatment common to other asylums of that era, and as a model of Quaker therapeutic beliefs. A common belief at the time was that the mad were wild beasts. The recommended medical practices included debilitating purges, painful blistering, long-term immobilisation by manacles, and sudden immersion in cold baths – all administered in regimes of fear, terror and brutality. But the Quakers maintained that the humanity and inner light of a person could never be extinguished. A trigger was the death in 1790 of a Quaker, Hannah Mills, a few weeks after she had been admitted to the York Asylum (now known as Bootham Park Hospital). The asylum had not let her friends or family visit her. This situation brought several concerns about the condition of Hannah's death. Therefore, this led William Tuke to think about The Retreat as a place where people should be treated equally. However, visiting afterwards to investigate the conditions, the Quakers found that the patients were treated worse than animals.